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We studied the prevalence of antibody to Herpes simplex virus types 1 and
2 (HSV-1 and HSV-2) in 766 randomly selected Costa Rican women 25-59 years of age
in a national household survey in 1984-1985. Overall, 97.1% were seropositive for HSV-I
and 39.4% for HSV-2. Only 1.1% of HSV-2 seropositive women gave a history of symptomatic
genital herpes. HSV-2 virus antibody increased with age and with the number of
lifetime sexual partners. HSV-2 seroprevalence among women who reported only 1 lifetime
sexual partner was almost twice as high as the prevalence among women who denied sexual
experience (30.5% vs. 17.7%) and reached 79.2% among women with 2-.4 partners. HSV-2
seroprevalence was lower among women whose partners used condoms: 28.9% for those
who had used condoms for at least 2 years vs 44.3% for those who never used condoms